PRIVATIZATION IS THE GOAL
With Privatization, Trump can reward his buddies. Whatta deal!
If you were puzzled by Donald Trump’s bizarre actions since Inauguration in January, just think about his anti-government theme. In his mind, the least government is the best government. As a consequence, he has not only fired a good portion of federal workers, he has also launched a program to privatize many of the functions government has performed so well, from keeping track of weather events to incarcerating law breakers. He wants to farm out government functions to private industry.
That’s a curious route to take – and a costly one. It’s based on the false premise that private operators can perform traditionally government functions more efficiently, effectively and economically than government employees. It’s easy to dispel the last criterion: economically since private operators want to maximize profit and need to create a profit margin on top of actual cost – plus needing to build in a contingency factor to protect themselves against cost overruns. Furthermore, costs for contract work order adjustments are usually padded to maximize profits over and above the basic contract, which is often underway, compromising efficiency.
Can you trust the final product? Can you be sure that the private contractor has not conducted the work with cost-saving shortcuts that may prove problematic down the line? It’s not uncommon to hear of such shortcuts by government contractors that have resulted in shoddy work, work that has shown to be desultory and having a harmful outcome. Private operators are no less afflicted with inferior work than are government agencies. Private contractors have an incentive to cut corners in order to maximize profits.
When work is undertaken by government agencies. it is more than likely its employees have sought its work because of an interest, if not a commitment, to its mission, whether it’s reviewing grant programs in science or developing and operating a National Park or inspecting engineering bridges and other structures. Positions in government are created in response to a need. Government employees take their work seriously because they fill a need. While these statements are generalizations, wiping out whole sections of a department is a far more blatant generalization that ignores the validity of the jobs that valued employees are fulfilling. When whole sections of an agency are terminated, there is work that will not get done. Very likely, it’s important work that will just be abandoned.
What that means for the schoolroom, what it means for airline safety, for disaster recovery or for agriculture or essential research in the laboratory, for incarceration of prisoners, can be seen in poorer education, in poorer health, in industrial accidents in crop failures, for inhumane, abusive & costly treatment of prisoners, etc. Government execution of its responsibilities usually turns out to be more efficient and effective than privatization. But, with privatization, Trump can reward his buddies – so it needs to be resisted. Let government workers do their jobs. They do them well.